1988-P Lincoln No Initials

[Merlin8971]

Here is a 1988-P Lincoln penny without the "FG" initials on the reverse of the coin.

[Tuebits]

Nice coin, I've found one also - I'll upload photos tonight so you can check and see it it is from the same dye.

Tuebits

[Tuebits]

No FG

The FG is missing, Statue is weak and fop of R is faded. see photos.

[Merlin8971]

Different Dies

I looked at the details of your photos and compared them to my coin.

The die scratch marks are similar at America, but the angle is different. The scratches on my 1988 are angled further down and pointing to the lower right. The R on my coin has very short "solar flare rays" (4) scratches coming out of the bottom of the left leg of the R pointing toward the statue in the center. The Lincoln statue on my 1988 is fairly clear with a weak base and Lincoln's head looks like an up-side-down bucket with two eye holes cut out of it. Really weird. The apparent squarish block beside the right base of the memorial in your photo is higher and slightly to the left of what appears to be a a very faint squarish shape on my coin. My squarish shape looks more like a light stain than a raised area under magnification.

I would say they are from different dies from looking at the markers.

Any other opoinions out there?

[coin-crazy]

This coin had too much grease and that what caused the absent in (FG)..

Mikee

[Merlin8971]

You are probably right

You are probably right about the grease. If you notice the United and America on the reverse of the penny you will notice the tops of the letters are incomplete.

[coin-crazy]

You are probably right about the grease. If you notice the United and America on the reverse of the penny you will notice the tops of the letters are incomplete.

There are a number of things that could have caused this , but remember this coin had too much grease from the start..

Mikee

[Merlin8971]

Then

Then how does one determine a genuine NO INITIALS 1988 coin from a coin that MAY HAVE HAD grease in the die recesses of the initials?

[coin-crazy]

Then how does one determine a genuine NO INITIALS 1988 coin from a coin that MAY HAVE HAD grease in the die recesses of the initials?

One thing to remember here ,we are talking about the single squeeze. It can only be due to grease.I dout the master hub was damaged!!

Mikee

[Merlin8971]

Discussion

If you notice, on the second photo of the reverse you will see United and America are partially formed, but in an uneven fashion, as in the incomplete U of United is less formed that the D in United. S in States is also affected. The rest of the letters of States are complete. The same for America, as in the first A is more complete than the second A of America. The areas of the letter that IS formed is quite crisp and well defined.

The area around where the placement of the FG initials should be is also crisp and well defined (rim and base of Memorial). To me, it seems there is no evidence available for grease obscuring the forming of the FG. Not that it could not be grease, there just is no evidence either way that I can see.

I would imagine that the only way to tell for sure would be to examine the coin for all known die markers of "genuine" No FG initials dies.

[rascal]

There are also more things than grease that can clog up a coin die. like say dirt , metal , and any kind of other junk that gets in the mixture. this is what creates the rare dropped letter coins is when the dies becomes unclogged and the debris fall out onto a coin planchet and gets struck into the coin.If you find a missing letter coin then it is a missing letter no matter how the coin got done this way at the mint. The coin in the photo on this thread looks like it may be the result from over grinding and polishing of the coin die.